A review on Pakistani Action-Drama Feature Length Film, ‘Azaadi’ aka Independence (2018). The Production House is Pervez Malik Films while its Distributor is ARY Films. This film’s music is composed by Sahir Ali Bagga.
+ Crew
- Written, Directed & Produced by Imran Malik
- Screenplay by Wajid Zuberi
- Cinematography by Ben Jasper
- Edited by M. Arif
- Co-Produced by Irfan Malik
+ Note
Azaadi was released on Eid al-Fitr. The shoots have taken place at Azad Kashmir and Northern areas of Pakistan. The film key elements are of patriotism, action scenes and a deep love story.
It is based on the issue of Kashmir conflict and freedom for Jammu & Kashmir. Danish Taimoor was originally cast opposite lead female Sonya Hussain, as the lead male character of the film. But due to the fallout with the makers of the film he was later replaced by Moammar.
The music of the film has been done by Sahir Ali Bagga, Jabar Abbas, Shafqat Amanat Ali Khan and Afshan Abbas. It is believed that singers such as Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Qurat-ul-Ain Balouch have also lent their voices for the soundtrack.
+ Main Cast
- Moammar Rana as Azaad
- Sonya Hussain as Zara
- Nadeem Baig as Azaad’s Father
- Maryam Ansari as Azaad’s Mother
- Erum Azam as Azaad’s Sister
- Ali Bilal as Mujhadeen #1
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+ Supporting Cast
- Ali Fateh as Mujhadeen #2
- Samama Randhawa as Mujhadeen #3
- Waseem as Mujhadeen #4
- Zeeshan as Mujhadeen #5
- Saddam-ul-Haque as Mujhadeen #6
- Mariyam Khalif as N/A (Cameo)
+ Plot
Azaad has devoted his life for Kashmir cause and is now imparting his vision to the youth to keep the cause alive.
+ High Points
i – Sonya Hussain as Zara, a Pakistan-origin British journalist was the only interesting performance to watch. I can see that she has worked really hard to pull it off on-screen. Hopefully, her performance might bring her new and good budget projects.
ii – Decent work with the direction of photography. The shooting locations of northern areas and Kashmir have given a good add-on to it.
iii – A couple of songs were worthy to listen to.
+ Low Points
i – Moammar Rana must have taken classes from Indian film star, Rajnikanth or Hollywood star, Chuck Norris in terms of their action scenes. It’s the granddaddy of stupidity when Moammar Rana is in action! The bomb scene in the end was most spectacular of them all… NOT!
ii – Indian soldiers are shown as the most stupid people where they intentionally stood firm in their tracks as ‘Shooting ducks’ even though they could see that an unknown sniper is killing them one by one! Nowhere did they look like as real soldiers belonging to any army whatsoever. Similarly, Indian govt in Jammu Kashmir is a govern body filled with idiot and devilish schemers.
iii – It would have been awesome to watch realistic based film on this long dispute issue. Though honestly, I watched what I expected from Moammar Rana’s film.
iv – Visual Effects are worst of the worst! I can assure you that you have watch much better visual effects in a student thesis film than here. Every mujahedeen seemed as though they were wearing very powerful springs underneath their boots where they could jump high whenever they felt like it. The bomb blasts, driving scenes clearly showed that the background is just a cheap ‘C’ grade visual effect.
v – Poor performances by the supporting characters
vi – The time length duration was almost 2 hours and 45 minutes, which is too long for such a … film.
vii – Weak writing of the supporting characters
viii – Some of the dramatic scenes turned out to be comic instead.
+ Overall
Azaadi is a terrible action based war film which clearly forgot what the intention was behind its making but instead focused on their box office collection.
Rate: 1.25 out of 5 stars
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